The Consulting Association (TCA) was a UK business (described by its key figure as "a non-profit making, unincorporated trade association"), based in Droitwich, which, from 1993 to 2009, maintained a database of British construction workers and became implicated in an ongoing "blacklisting" scandal. Revelations about the database resulted in the business being shut down, the Employment Relations Act 1999 (Blacklists) Regulations 2010, a Parliamentary enquiry, High Court actions leading to compensation payouts valued at between £50m and £250m in total, and a series of cases being brought to the European Court of Human Rights.
Background The Consulting Association was established in 1993 as a successor to the Economic League, which had held the construction industry's blacklist but which had been wound up in 1993 after a parliamentary inquiry and bad press.
Construction company Sir Robert McAlpine Ltd invested a total of £20,000 in founding TCA, buying the previous blacklist database from the Economic League and hiring one of its former employees, Ian Kerr, as managerRob Evans, Severin Carrell and Helen Carter, The Guardian, 27 May 2009, Man behind illegal blacklist snooped on workers for 30 yearsPhil Chamberlain, Lobster, The construction industry blacklist: how the Economic League lived on , Lobster 58, Winter 2009/10 (McAlpine also invested £10,000 in founding another Economic League spin-off, CAPRiM, on the understanding that they would not interfere with the Consulting Association). In press releases and written testimony submitted to the Scottish Affairs Committee by its director Callum McAlpine, the company claimed that "at least 14" major construction and civil engineering companies colluded in forming The Consulting Association. This was corroborated by Kerr's written statement.
Blacklisting The database, often referred to as a "list" in the press and by one of its founders, operated as a blacklist against workers who were active trade union members or otherwise vocal on matters such as health and safety violations by their employers. Many of the workers were on the list having been accused by previous employers of being "troublemakers" or "militant"; other notes in the database referred to subjects' personal and family relationships, and those who had pursued an employment tribunal.
Workers who were on the list allege they were deprived of their livelihoods as a result of their inclusion, with supporters claiming their human rights had been breached. Following initial newspaper reports in 2008, arising out of an investigation into worker dismissals during construction of Manchester Royal Infirmary, and Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) action in early 2009, it emerged that the Consulting Association held files on 3,213 construction workers, including political activists, environmentalists, shop stewards and health and safety representatives (it was later alleged that the 3,213 was only a tiny proportion, and that up to 95% of TCA files were left untouched, leading to speculation, denied by the ICO, that 60,000 workers could have been blacklisted). The list included 240 women, many associated with environmental campaigns, including activist Helen Steel, involved in the 'McLibel case'.
The files included phrases such as "will cause trouble, strong TU trade union", "ex-shop steward, definite problems", and "wears anti-Nazi League badges and insignia", with union membership often the main criterion for inclusion. Strike organiser Brian Higgins had the longest record on the blacklist, running to 49 pages.
Member organisations Bovis and G. Percy Trentham were involved at an early stage, but dropped out. The ICO listed over 40 construction companies who were current or previous users of the Consulting Association:
It has been suggested that after March 2009 blacklisting may have continued via employment agencies.
Trade union collusion Ian Kerr described "A particular relationship between an HR manager in a particular area and the regional officer of the union."
An employment tribunal revealed that Liz Keates of Carillion had a meeting with various other employers, and Amicus trade union official, Roger Furmedge, to discuss denying access to work for members of another union, TGWU/EPIU on the Manchester Piccadilly site.
Extract from an individual workers' blacklist file held by The Consulting Association:
Key: BMcA = Bernard McAuley, current Unite national officer for construction. Resigned from Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians prior to the completion of the Hand Report into corruption and immediately took up a position in the Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbing Union. 3292 = Emcor Rail 3293 = Diamond M&E Services M.C. = Main Contractors I.C. = Ian Coates, previously labour manager for Haden Young and served on the national council for the Heating and Ventilating Contractors Association (today the Building Engineering Services Association) D Simpson = Derek Simpson EPIU = Electrical Plumbing Industrial Union
Stephan Quant claimed to have brought several trade union officials to his club, the Naval and Military, for a meal. He further claimed that "I had close relationships with UCATT, particularly a bloke called Jeremy Swain in London. I first met Swain in 1991, when he was just a regional officer, so I've known him for 20 years."
In 2013 UCATT executive council announced that, from 2014, industrial relations managers would no longer be invited to conference.
In December 2021, construction union Unite launched a search for evidence of collusion with blacklisting by officers of the union and its predecessors. Its legal advisers were gathering evidence from previous court cases and taking testimony from witnesses for the inquiry. The Blacklist Support Group said: "Over many decades, the senior leadership of construction unions actively encouraged a business friendly model of trade unionism, where cultivating partnership arrangements with employers was often given priority over fighting for workers rights. Overly friendly relationships developed between union officials and managers, this is the context in which information detrimental to union members was being discussed."
In April 2023, Unite launched an independent inquiry to investigate possible collusion by union officials in construction sector blacklisting. The inquiry, led by a fully independent team of lawyers, would examine whether some trade union officers had been aware of, or had colluded with, the blacklisting of their own members.
Police collusion MI5, Special Branch and the Special Demonstration Squad all spied on trade unionists.
Revelations also pointed to police collusion. In Autumn 2012, the Blacklist Support Group appointed Christian Khan solicitors to submit a complaint over detailed surveillance documented within certain Consulting Association files to the Directorate of Professional Standards. The Directorate initially dismissed the accusations until the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) stepped in to conduct its own investigation in February 2013. In October 2013, the IPCC confirmed that the police had colluded in the blacklist, saying it was "likely that all special branches were involved in providing information" to the list.
A clandestine National Extremism Tactical Co-ordination Unit (NETCU) police officer attended one meeting with eight company human resource managers.
In March 2015, Home Secretary Theresa May announced that Christopher Pitchford would lead an inquiry into undercover policing. Setting out the inquiry's terms of reference in July, Pitchford said it would "not examine undercover or covert operations conducted by any body other than an English or Welsh police force". The Blacklist Support Group, which along with Ucatt has been given core participant status, has raised concerns that it will be difficult for Pitchford to deliver truth and justice within his stated remit, given that so many allegations refer to dealings between the police and private companies. (Pitchford stepped down from the inquiry in May 2017 following diagnosis of motor neurone disease, and was replaced by Sir John Mitting.)
In March 2018, the Metropolitan Police confirmed undercover Special Branch officers had supplied information to the Consulting Association. The admission followed a complaint by the Blacklist Support Group to the IPCC. Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said: "It is now abundantly clear that various arms of the state including the Police colluded in the blacklisting process. This is one of the hidden scandals of the abuse of civil liberties in our country that needs to be recognised fully and addressed. The people involved need to be brought to book." The Metropolitan Police told complainants that until the Undercover Policing Inquiry had assessed the evidence, no further action would be taken. In April 2018, the GMB union lodged a Freedom of Information request with Scotland Yard seeking to discover exactly what role the police played in the blacklisting. In June 2018, after the Metropolitan Police failed to respond to the FOI request, the GMB referred them to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
The report showed that police, including Special Branch, and the security services supplied information to the blacklist. An undercover police officer Mark Jenner was also said to have infiltrated the construction union UCATT, gathering intelligence on "over 300 individuals". However, the investigation said the sharing of information did not appear to be systematic.
Information Commissioner's Office action On 23 February 2009, the company's office was raided by the Information Commissioner's Office, which served an enforcement notice against TCA under the terms of the Data Protection Act. Only 5% to 10% of the material that was available in the office was seized. Files on members of the RMT as well as on around 200 environmental and animal rights activists were among the material that was not seized. The ICO said its action followed a 28 June 2008 article by journalist Phil Chamberlain, published in The Guardian.
The ICO set up a telephone enquiry service for people who suspected they might be listed on The Consulting Association's database, receiving by November 2013 over 4,000 calls. It also wrote to 103 people identified by their address, and received over 1,200 written requests, from which 467 individuals were provided with copies of their information.
An independent Blacklist Support Group, formed in the spring of 2009, campaigned for justice for victims of the database. After mixed results within the tribunal system due to the tight time constraints and employee status placed within legislation, the group took up civil claims which received attention before the High Court of Justice in February 2013. The human rights solicitors Guney, Clark and Ryan (GCR) were entrusted in delivering these multiple cases against the biggest subscriber to the database, Sir Robert McAlpine Ltd; Construction News reported McAlpine was facing a £17 million High Court claim from blacklisted workers.
Ian Kerr was prosecuted for failing to register as a data controller. He pleaded guilty and was fined £5000 in July 2009; he died in 2012. Enforcement notices were issued against 14 construction businesses:
The pressure group Liberty wrote to the UK Information Commissioner, Christopher Graham, accusing him of inaction over a privacy scandal that it compared to the News International phone hacking scandal. In August 2012, Liberty threatened to take the UK government to court to force an investigation into the case. The legal officer for Liberty, Corinna Ferguson, told The Independent: "We can't believe the inaction of the Information Commissioner on a human-rights violation of such wide public interest."
Scottish Affairs Select Committee inquiry The Scottish Affairs Select Committee convened an inquiry.